The Race Results Are In!!!!!!!

At the Awards Dinner there were a number of prizes given out to boats and teams. I am proud to say that Ambition and Maryse in particular won the award for the Boat being most involved in supporting the spirit of the event. Special mention was given to Maryse's now to be named ........ AWARD WINNING SALSA!
Photo's to come soon! 

RACE RESULTS.......

The crew of Ambition are SUPER SUPER HAPPY with how we finished in the race from Portsmouth to BVI. 

Within the Class A boats, Ambition completed the course in 4th position on corrected time taking into consideration the various boats handicaps and the amount of motoring engine hours. 

GREAT CREW - GREAT RESULTS

SUPER EFFORT FROM MARYSE AND JEAN 

Ambition was 6th overall considering all boats in both Class A and Class B - VERY RESPECTABLE!!!
Great Crew - Great Results!!!!!!

A few pictures of the Nanny Cay Marina - Tortola BVI

Tonight is the awards ceremony for the Caribbean ARC 1500 Rally and we will be leaving Nanny Cay tomorrow morning to hop around a few of the islands with Jean before he flies back home on Wednesday. 

Beach at Nanny Cay

I think there still be a few Carib beers and a rum punch left - but not many!

A Sabot - the boat I learned to sail in!!

Ours didn't have the wheel and mag option though!

Nanny Cay Resort

New section of the marina - +100 new slips

The weather improves dramatically

Nov 11

We had a great day on board Ambition today. The winds were light and we needed to motor for the first time this trip but we are back under sail this evening in winds of 10 knots max. The motoring gave us hot water for showers - always a nice treat! Since it was calm we enjoyed our first cold beer since last Thursday mmmmm. We also landed our first mahi mahi of the season - still less than a perfect filet job but most of it made it into the Fridge. The little pieces made it into a great cerviche - thanks to Rox's recipe!

It doesn't get much better than this, especially after being bounced around in 20 foot seas and winds 25 to 30 gusting to almost 40 for two or three days. We are not winning the race but we are still in the pack and having a good time. 695 more miles to reach Tortola and we have more than a few days of very little wind like under 10 knots or less, ahead. We have enough fuel to motor at least 500+ miles. 

Landed our first mahi mahi two days ago ......

FISH ON!!!!!!!

Perfect size to fit in the freezer!

Captain Filet at work!

and the fishin' hook is back in the water today! 

Fishin' hook back in the water!!!

Spi up - looking good!

In true sailing style of getting all sorts of different winds and using ALL our different sail combinations, - today we have 10 knots and the spi is up and pulling us along at 4.5 to 5 knots - I would like to take 7 knots of what we didn't use on the windy days and put it on today! Somehow that just doesn't work! We need to develop an app for the weather gods!

Morning and evening SSB Nets for the Rally

 We are having a great time learning our boat and settling in to dealing with what gets served as wind. Ambition takes care of us. Maryse is doing great too! 

We are in 10th place out of 13 in our class without taking engine hours into consideration and there is a small group of us all together in a lump. We have little hope at catching the Oyster 625 or Dufour 56 but that is fine with us!

Wind disappeared completely yesterday afternoon and couldn't even keep the spi alive! It really has been a trip of all or nothing. It is like putting all the cream cheese on only one little piece of the bagel - I wish the weather gods new how to optimize and equalize!! We need to build them an app.

I have discovered the joys of Dyneema. Amongst other little tasks I taught myself how to eye splice Dyneema line. I replaced my first NOISY metal shackle on the topping lift with a QUIET soft loop! I love this stuff and it is so easy to work with, it is amazing.

Chris Parker says the wind will return in a couple of hours and carry us the rest of the way to BVI with an ETA Monday morning - 318 miles to go....

Nov 13

Just 54 miles to the finish line!!!! Trade winds finally arrived yesterday and east winds at 12 to 18 and only a small swell. Yesterday there ware many squalls - two benefits - a great rinse cycle for Ambition to get rid of her salt crust, two the winds are always higher - down side is the wind may be 20 or 30 degrees off your desired course!

Land ho!!!!

Across the line - 4:13PM 

A little celebration for a great crew!!!

WHAT A RIDE!!!!! Ambition arrived at the dock in Nanny Cay Tortola yesterday evening after crossing the finish line at 4:13 yesterday afternoon - 1316nm in 9 days 2 hours!! We are anxious to see the final standings once all the boats are in port and the calculations have been done to adjust finish times based on motoring penalties.

The sign of a great crossing --- none of the safety or medical supplies were used. We broke nothing on the boat and we have the same crew on board as when we left Portsmouth VA!!!!!










The fantastic team from the Arc 1500 Rally were on hand to welcome us wit rum punch and arrival gifts - thanks Isabelle, Mia, Lyle and Jake - you guys are an amazing team!!

YESSS we did it!!!

Great crew!!!!

Nov 6, 7 and 8 - what a difference a few days make....

Wind increases....

Our overnight was uneventful but this mornings weather reports indicates that a gale has formed near Bermuda and the effects will be felt well south - thats where we are!!!




As the day progressed the winds increased from 8 to 10 knots into the 25 to 30 knot range. 




This weather is not exactly what the colour brochure had for us ... but other than being a tad rolly in 25 to 30 gusts to 35 from the NNE. We are chasing down all the clanging cupboard contents! So grateful for the full enclosure as the 10+ foot waves smack us broadside - nice and dry inside. We are under staysail and double reefed main. Everyone is doing great on board even though a tad tired as we try to get used to sleeping with the racket on board.

Not a clear shot but will give you an idea......

sorry for the reflection in the enclosure .... 

Waves breaking over the bow and onto the dodger VERY frequently!!

All is good on board even though the conditions are NOT what was forecasted or expected. Winds have been N or NW 25 to 30 with gusts to 38! Waves are now 20 feet with a 13 sec period between. You know how comfortable downwind sailing is in waves! UGH!! 

Sail selection for this weather is our Victoria Secret kit ..... a thong in front and a thong in the back!! Staysail and 3 reefs in the main sail. 

Overnight we see winds a steady 35 to 40 knots and gusts as high as 50!!!!! Darkness does NOT make for a warm and comfortable feeling in winds this high. You see nothing other than the instruments and you stare for hours at the making sure that autopilot does its job well and that more adjustments are not required to sail trim. 

Winds are to be lighter Tuesday,  but the waves will still be 15 feet so we will see how that goes. Either way we will be in BVI soon and the rum will be great!

Saturday Nov 5th - DEPARTURE DAY

Ok so we were up early this morning to get the last tasks accomplished before  heading for the START LINE! 
My most important task was to change the raw water pump impeller - no big deal as I have done this lots of times. To make it easier, I have bought a new impeller puller tool to make the task easier and it worked perfectly. I put the new impeller in and then on went the cover with its four little screws. One two three screws in and tightened .....fourth ..... CRAP!!!! I snapped the head off the screw!!!!!!! Now it is my turn to PANIC ..... I tried to use my screw extortion bit - no success. Dashed over the the boatyard office to find that since it is Saturday none of the mechanics were at work .... oh oh oh ... not going well. 
Searched the dock for Myles - the rally participant hat did the diesel seminar to ask his assistance ..... he has already headed out and on his way to the start line. 
The marina is emptying out quickly and we are still tied to the dock. The last thing I want to do is have to wait to Monday to get a mechanic on board and then head out late Monday, a full 48 hours after the rest of the fleet left. I figured that I should at least test to see how the cover may leak with one screw missing. Fired up the engine and anxiously watched for the signs of leakage at the pump ..... huummm so far so good. Increased the RPM to 2000 and checked again ...... huummm still no leaking. 
Time for a captain to do what a captain needs to do - take a decision .... Oh great!!!!! I figured that we would leave the seacock closed all the time so that there would be no way for water to get to the pump when the engine was not running - risk minimized ..... since it didn't seem to leak and even if it did, the pumps would easily keep up with the small amount of water. Decision done - we leave with one screw missing! I hope that is different than one screw loose! 

We drop the dock lines at 10AM and we are OFF!!!! 

Instrument shot at departure

Chart plotter as we head past the naval yards

 We have about 18 miles to motor to get to the start line which is located ate the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. This takes us past the largest US Naval yards. There is more military ships here in dry dock or in slips being overhauled, updated and repainted than us Canadians have afloat!  

One of four aircraft carriers that were in for a refit....impressive to say the least

Jean analyzes latest weather and routing files pre-start line!

Motoring up to the start line

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel is the start line

Sails out and over the line at 2:27PM 

Instrument shot at the start line

 Our first afternoon and evening at sea is very quiet and we ghost along at 2 to 3 knots in very very light winds. Since the boats did not start all together due to the shift of one day early, we quickly lost sight of the few that were near us at the start. By evening we only see a few on our AIS (this is a device that transmits and receives location data, speed, direction from other boats that gets displayed on our screen)
As darkness sets in we get prepared for the first overnight shift schedule. Maryse chooses the 3AM to 6AM shift, Jean takes the midnight to 3AM and I take the 9 to midnight.